• Energy Research
• National Science Foundation close
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• 3. Good health close
• 1. No poverty close

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are currently one of the most important electrochemical energy storage devices, powering electronic mobile devices and electric vehicles alike. However, there is a remarkable difference between their rate of production and rate of recycling. At the end of their lifecycle, only a limited number of LIBs undergo any recycling treatment, with the majority go to landfills or being hoarded in households. Further losses of LIB components occur because the the state-of-the-art LIB recycling processes are limited to components with high economic value, e.g., Co, Cu, Fe, and Al. With the increasing popularity of concepts such as “circular economy” (CE), new LIB recycling systems have been proposed that target a wider spectrum of compounds, thus reducing the environmental impact associated with LIB production. This review work presents a discussion of the current practices and some of the most promising emerging technologies for recycling LIBs. While other authoritative reviews have focused on the description of recycling processes, the aim of the present was is to offer an analysis of recycling technologies from a CE perspective. Consequently, the discussion is based on the ability of each technology to recover every component in LIBs. The gathered data depicted a direct relationship between process complexity and the variety and usability of the recovered fractions. Indeed, only processes employing a combination of mechanical processing, and hydro- and pyrometallurgical steps seemed able to obtain materials suitable for LIB (re)manufacture. On the other hand, processes relying on pyrometallurgical steps are robust, but only capable of recovering metallic components.

Billion tons of post-consumer Tetra Pak cartons are discarded annually as land and ocean wastes, creating significant environmental problems and resource losses. Recycling of the carton wastes is hindered by its multi-material compositions and low values of the recycled products. In this study, a novel upcycling of the cartons was investigated. A post-consumer carton consisting of paper, polyolefin, and polyamide was directly converted in 210-230 °C tetrahydrofuran containing 10-20 mM acid to produce up to 19.2% of levoglucosenone and 8.6% of furfural by selectively decomposing paper fraction. The remaining solids containing mostly intact polyethylene and polyamide but also a smaller fraction of paper-derived char were separated using a solvent-dissolution method. The xylene-soluble fraction was a recycled polymer similar to the original polyethylene, which was verified by its functional groups, the composition of the pyrolysis products, and the melt rheology results. The xylene-insoluble fraction was a mixture of polyamide and paper-derived char. Upon pyrolysis, caprolactam was produced as the only major vapor product. The remaining, thermally stable paper-derived char could be used as a high-quality solid fuel. Overall, the demonstrated recycling method could potentially maximize the values of the products recovered from carton wastes.

Abstract Using a parametric modeling approach, we evaluate economic and environmental life cycle trade-offs of medium-duty electric trucks in comparison with nine non-electric technologies (e.g., conventional diesel, biodiesel, compressed natural gas, etc.) for U.S. model year 2015. Life cycle results for electric trucks vary strongly with weighted positive kinetic energy, whereas those for non-electric trucks vary the most with average trip speed. Our parametric life cycle assessment models explain 91%–98% of the variability in life cycle inventory and impact assessment results, revealing “how” and “why” the trade-offs of truck electrification change with different input conditions. In terms of cost, whether total cost of ownership or also including health and climate impact costs, model year 2015 battery electric trucks in severe applications such as urban driving provide positive and robust net benefits in many areas of the U.S. However, for typical operations, petroleum diesel with idle reduction or hybrid-electric technology provide the largest overall life cycle cost benefit. Battery electric, idle reduction, and hybrid trucks emit lower life cycle greenhouse gas emissions across the board in comparison with the other technologies. Despite lower carbon-intensity, electric trucks tend to be water-intensive because of cooling water consumption for thermo-electric power plants. Hybrid trucks create higher NOx emissions and thus larger associated environmental impacts. Idle reduction is beneficial to urban-type applications. Compressed natural gas trucks are the least water-intensive but may not reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Using marginal rather than average factors for electric grid emissions calculations doesn't change the overall life cycle comparisons. Improving driving behavior has universally positive effects for which the exact magnitude and sensitivity depend on environmental impact indicators and technologies.

Chronic alcohol consumption in adults can induce cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, and heart failure. In newborns, prenatal alcohol exposure can increase the risk of congenital heart diseases. Understanding biological mechanisms involved in the long-term alcohol exposure-induced cardiotoxicity is pivotal to the discovery of therapeutic strategies. In this study, cardiomyocytes derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC-CMs) were treated with clinically relevant doses of ethanol for various durations up to 5 weeks. The treated cells were characterized for their cellular properties and functions, and global proteomic profiling was conducted to understand the molecular changes associated with long-term ethanol exposure. Increased cell death, oxidative stress, deranged Ca2+ handling, abnormal action potential, altered contractility, and suppressed structure development were observed in ethanol-treated cells. Many dysregulated proteins identified by global proteomic profiling were involved in apoptosis, heart contraction, and extracellular collagen matrix. In addition, several signaling pathways including the Wnt and TGFβ signaling pathways were affected due to long-term ethanol treatment. Therefore, chronic ethanol treatment of hiPSC-CMs induces cardiotoxicity, impairs cardiac functions, and alters protein expression and signaling pathways. This study demonstrates the utility of hiPSC-CMs as a novel model for chronic alcohol exposure study and provides the molecular mechanisms associated with long-term alcohol exposure in human cardiomyocytes.

“Modern energy for all,” an internationally supported initiative to connect populations to electricity services, is expected to help reduce poverty-induced vulnerabilities. It has become a primary strategy for meeting sustainable development goals, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. However, when electricity is supplied by a capacity-constrained grid to a resource-constrained population, the service quality can vary both spatially and temporally. This research explores the quality of electricity services based on a case study of Unguja, Tanzania. Using 1) open-ended interviews, 2) detailed electricity-systems monitoring, and 3) household surveys, we show how voltage quality varies significantly, even within highly localized settings. Fluctuations result in dim lights at best and power outages and broken appliances at worst, denying many Unguja residents the expected benefits of access to modern energy. By combining an extensive understanding of the physical system together with interviews and surveys, this work presents a unique mapping of voltage quality in a system that is financially and physically constrained and highlights the consequences of poor-quality service for poor users.

The sharing economy has upset the market for housing and transportation services. Homeowners can rent out their property when they are away on vacation, car owners can offer ridesharing services. These sharing economy business models are based on monetizing under-utilized infrastructure. They are enabled by peer-to-peer platforms that match eager sellers with willing buyers. Are there compelling sharing economy opportunities in the electricity sector? What products or services can be shared in tomorrow’s smart grid? We begin by exploring sharing economy opportunities in the electricity sector, and discuss regulatory and technical obstacles to these opportunities. We then study the specific problem of a collection of firms sharing their electricity storage. We characterize equilibrium prices for shared storage in a spot market. We formulate storage investment decisions of the firms as a non-convex non-cooperative game. We show that under a mild alignment condition, a Nash equilibrium exists, it is unique, and it supports the social welfare. We discuss technology platforms necessary for the physical exchange of power, and market platforms necessary to trade electricity storage. We close with synthetic examples to illustrate our ideas.

Tropical reforestation (TR) has been highlighted as an important intervention for climate change mitigation because of its carbon storage potential. TR can also play other frequently overlooked, but significant, roles in helping society and ecosystems adapt to climate variability and change. For example, reforestation can ameliorate climate‐associated impacts of altered hydrological cycles in watersheds, protect coastal areas from increased storms, and provide habitat to reduce the probability of species' extinctions under a changing climate. Consequently, reforestation should be managed with both adaptation and mitigation objectives in mind, so as to maximize synergies among these diverse roles, and to avoid trade‐offs in which the achievement of one goal is detrimental to another. Management of increased forest cover must also incorporate measures for reducing the direct and indirect impacts of changing climate on reforestation itself. Here we advocate a focus on “climate‐smart reforestation,” defined as reforesting for climate change mitigation and adaptation, while ensuring that the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on reforestation are anticipated and minimized.